Gun Safety Class Aims To Empower Women

MISSOULA COUNTY

Recent attention surrounding sexual assaults in the Missoula community have many concerned for their safety. But one firearm expert is offering a class to give women another option of self defense, one he says will prevent them from being victims.

Wendy Hufman is a working mother; she?s also a gun owner. ?I have young kids at home and I own a gun. I do a lot of traveling by myself; I decided that I needed to be extremely safe,? she said.

Hufman is just one of several women who've gone through the gun safety course for concealed weapons. ?I was really relieved when I walked in and saw that there were other females excited to learn about gun safety just like I was,? Hufman said.

Gary Marbut has been leading the safety course for more than 20 years. While the class is co-ed now, he said he originally designed it for women.

?What I really want to do it to empower women to be able to enforce their choice to not be victims,? said Marbut.

To help with that concept, Marbut taught the class about self defense, lethal force and safety.

?I think people who want to use firearms for self defense absolutely should not rely on the training that comes in the box with the gun, because there is no training in the box,? he said.

?It has been way exceeding my expectations?just the knowledge that I feel like I?m walking away with today from taking this class,? said Hufman.

Marbut said he's graduated about 3,600 people through the course, of those about half were women.

For more information on the course, and others like it you can click here.

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